Torkington House

Updated 24 October 2020

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was conducted by an inspector and an assistant inspector who visited the service. A member of the CQC medicines inspection team carried out a remote inspection, by looking at records and speaking with staff about how medicines were being managed.

Service and service type

Torkington House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We looked at all the information we held about the service. This included the last inspection report and the provider's action plan. We had also carried out an Emergency Support Framework call to the provider (a telephone call where we assessed how the service was managing during the COVID-19 pandemic) in June 2020. We looked at other records we held which included notifications of significant events.

During the inspection

We met people who used the service and observed how they were being cared for. We spoke with staff on duty. We looked at care records, records of staff recruitment and training, records relating to medicines management and other records used by the provider for managing the service.

After the inspection

The medicines team inspector continued to look at records and spoke with staff at the service.

Updated 24 October 2020

About the service

Torkington House is a care home for up to 32 older people, some who may be living with the experience of dementia. At the time of our inspection, there were 28 people living at the service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

At this inspection we only looked at some aspects of the service and have not made judgements about other areas.

People received personalised care and support. Staff knew them and their needs well and provided kind and considerate care.

People's medicines were managed in a safe way and they received medicines as prescribed. They were able to see health care professionals when they needed, and the staff worked closely with these professionals to make sure their needs were met.

The risks to people's safety and well being had been assessed, monitored and met.

There were systems to protect people from abuse and to investigate and learn from accidents, incidents and complaints.

There were enough staff to care for people and meet their needs. There were appropriate systems for recruiting staff.

The environment was safely maintained and there were systems to protect people from the spread of infection.

There were suitable systems for monitoring and improving the quality of the service.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection (and update)

The rating at the last inspection, 21 January 2020 (Published 19 February 2020) was requires improvement. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We undertook this focused inspection to check the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions, ''Is the service safe?'' and ''Is the service well-led?'' which contain those requirements.

The ratings from the previous comprehensive inspection for those key questions not looked at on this occasion were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Torkington House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.